Arrests and convictions of the right-wing thugs threatening the health director at her home (Jan. 25, “Protesters return to home of public health director in Durango”) cannot come soon enough. This is thuggery, not a protest. Freedom of speech is not guaranteed with threats to a civil servant. It is a crime. This is what Trumpism represents. This is how Hitler’s Brown Shirt thugs terrorized 1930s Germany.

While this is not of the scale of the Jan. 6 insurrection invasion of the Capitol, this is not American, either. Rather this is the stuff that makes Vladimir Putin grin from ear to ear. Bloody dictators around the world are using our extremists from Jan. 6 as a reason to reject democracy.

Massacres of Muslims, Jews, Latinos and gays increased dramatically during Trump’s term.

It was bad enough when armed thugs threatened a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest picnic at Buckley Park last summer. Guns versus picnic baskets! Go figure! It was like we were living in Syria, Russia, North Korea, Turkey or China.

Wake up, Durango. We cannot let right-wing extremism overwhelm our city. We’re better than this. This is replicating Hitler’s 1930s Germany with Brown Shirts running amok.

Dave OhmanDurango